Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Reflections on A to Z Challenge

I can't remember how I stumbled upon Alex Cavanaugh's blog and saw the A to Z Challenge. I saw the seemingly innocent A to Z badge and thought, this might be fun. I signed up. I was in the late 700's on the list and was shocked when the list grew to over 1,200 bloggers. How could I make it to each and everyone of them and still have time to blog, write, work, eat, sleep, motherly duties? I discovered the Surprise Me! button and started using that. What shocked me was that the Surprise Me! button would sometimes take me to that same blog over and over. I'd read, leave a comment, and then move on.

I know I didn't visit all 1200+ blogs. There was no way for me to considering that I only gave myself 15-20 minutes each day to visit the blogs. I don't have a lot of time and I had never gotten into the habit of blogging or visiting blogs. This challenge exposed me to a world of blogs I had no idea of, and I hope to be able to keep up with most of those that I've joined. I may not be able to visit every day, but I hope to at least once a week.

I have to admit that I visited many blogs that I didn't leave a comment. If the post was paragraphs and paragraphs and paragraphs long, I skipped it. There were other blogs that I visited that I had no clue what they were about - gaming-type sites, so I looked them over and then passed them by. Why join a site just to join? Sure, I'd love to have tons and tons of followers, but if they aren't really interested in what I'm talking about, well..I don't want to join a blog that doesn't interest me.

What I especially liked about the challenge was meeting other bloggers and my commitment to blog each day. I don't know that I can keep that up, especially since I'm now working on a new project. But, I will try. I have to admit that I'm a little addicted to blogging and visiting.